Marriage & Wedding Information

Writing Your Wedding Vows the Way Poets Do


Let's face it, not many of us have the kind of skills or experience to write truly poetic wedding vows. Or do we? Here's the truth: Even if you don't know Dylan Thomas from Bob Dylan, and you're pretty sure T.S. Elliot was that guy who wrote the words to Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Cats," all is not lost! In fact, there are ways to learn to write the words you want. With four simple steps, you can take what you feel in your heart and make it come out as sweetly as any Shakespearian sonnet.

Step 1: Decide on a theme

Finding a theme should arguably be the easiest part of writing poetry for your wedding vows. But you don't want to be stuck with something trite or cliché, even though the theme of romantic love is probably the oldest known for poetry. There are lots of ways to avoid writing the same old "roses are red, violets are blue" type of poem. One trick the pros use is to envision what a newspaper article about your relationship would say. Would it discuss how and where you met? How your relationship has stayed strong, even during the hard times? What your love has meant to one another? Since newspaper articles get right to the point, this exercise can help you pick out an overriding theme for your vows.

Step 2: Allow time for reverie

No, not "revelry" (hopefully that will be what your wedding day is all about), but reverie - a quiet time devoted to a kind of dreamy meditation. Try some tricks for allowing yourself time to truly think about your poem -- and not just those things that allow you to "act like a poet." Go for a walk alone, listen to instrumental music, or simply shut the door to a room in your house and ask not to be disturbed. The most important thing to remember with any of these methods is that you don't let other people interrupt your time.

Step 3: Choose your topic

Theme, as discussed above, is the driving idea behind your poem. The topic, however, is the specific vehicle you use to express the theme. While finding the theme should be the easiest part of writing a poem for your wedding, finding a topic that isn't hackneyed and trite can be a challenge. For instance, love is your theme, but the beauty of your betrothed's eyes may be the topic. You are using the example of her eyes as the symbol for your love. The key is to find something new. There's something that makes your chosen one special, be it appearance, wit, or style. That's the topic you want to choose. Poets use tools like automatic writing, journals, or "dream work" to come up with topics for their prose. (These tools are all discussed in detail in the home-study course I put together for couples personalizing their wedding vows - visit http://www.WeddingVowToolkit.com for more info.) But anything that allows you to spark your creativity can suffice if you're short on time.

Step 4: Pick Your Style

As many different poems as there are, there are almost an equal number of styles in which they are written. There are traditional forms, modern, post modern, and many more. You can work on fitting your rough draft poem into one of these many forms, or you can go with no form at all. The benefit of working on an art form is that there are no hard and fast rules on what the end product must look like. Perhaps you'd like to try your hand at penning your vows in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. Or, to go a completely different route, maybe "experimental" is right up your alley. No matter what you choose, just make sure it fits your style. After all, personalizing your wedding vows means just that - they should be personal, not forced to fit into a style that just isn't "you."

Chris Simeral is the creator of The Ultimate Wedding Vow Toolkit, the wedding-coordinator-approved home-study course for couples personalizing or renewing their wedding vows. Learn more at http://www.WeddingVowToolkit.com.


MORE RESOURCES:

Father H. Baxter Liebler
San Juan Record, UT - Jul 23, 2008
by Buckley Jensen In his youth, he very much wanted to go west to Montana and become a sheepman. His parents and family pleaded with him to go to college ...


Big payoff
South Bend Tribune, IN - Jul 21, 2008
Learning to manage finances is something that started early in my life. It also was an important part of life for Pat and me early in our marriage ...


Groom’s daring feat on his wedding day
Hindu, India - Jul 13, 2008
BHUBANESWAR: You must have heard of a groom arriving in a car, on a horse or even in a palanquin to tie the nuptial knot. But Sishir Mishra, 32-year-old ...


Wedding bell blues
The Mercury (subscription), South Africa - Jul 13, 2008
RELATIONSHIP experts say one new spouse in 10 will experience postnuptial depression to a greater or lesser degree. Sometimes it is not just the sense of ...


Bakersfield Now

Kern County will not restore civil wedding ceremonies
Bakersfield Now, CA - Jul 8, 2008
By Carol Ferguson Kern County will not go back to performing civil wedding ceremonies. On Tuesday, most of the Board of Supervisors backed the decision by ...


Dream marriage! Exchange vows in space
Merinews, India - Jul 4, 2008
Marriage in space! You are right. A Japanese conglomerate is offering this opportunity for $2.2 million or 240 million Yen. Registration started from July 1 ...


York Region Era Banner

Wedding bells replace gavel
York Region Era Banner, Canada - Jul 4, 2008
Susan Scott and Bobby Ghiravanian kiss after tying the knot in the Newmarket council chambers Friday, the first couple to do so. STAFF PHOTO/MIKE BARRETT ...


Gay Wired

How a Marriage Contract Supports Same-Sex Commitments
Gay Wired, CA - Jul 4, 2008
By | Article Date: 7/04/2008 12:00 AM The great thing about designing and celebrating weddings for over 20 years, if you did not manage to get something ...


Woman disrupts husband’s marriage to mistress
The Tide, Nigeria - Jun 29, 2008
This is a story of how a middle-aged man abandoned his legally married wife and two children and stayed with his mistress in a prominent city in the ...


Boston Globe

San Francisco gay pride festivities gear up for expected wedding ...
Newsweek - Jun 28, 2008
By LISA LEFF AP Writer | AP (SAN FRANCISCO) Move over Dykes on Bikes. Here come the brides — and grooms. Given San Francisco's sizable role in initiating ...
Gay revelers celebrate pride, marriage rights Charleston Gazette
Marriage celebrated at gay pride parade abc7news.com
all 988 news articles

Marriage-Wedding - Google News

home | site map
© 2006